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It’s not the first time the world’s largest retailer would be taken to task for corporate wheeling and dealing both at home and abroad.

Dealing With Disgruntled Employees

Sergio Cicero Zapata, who worked in Walmart de Mexico’s real estate division until 2004, not only blew the whistle on Bentonville but also revealed that the company squelched the investigation and chose not to report evidence promptly to federal prosecutors. This puts Walmart in potential violation of the U.S.’s major anti-bribery law the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

Walmart issued a rebuttal yesterday saying they take compliance with the FCPA “very seriously and the company is “committed to having a strong and effective global anti-corruption program in every country in which we operate,” right before pointing out, “Many of the alleged activities in The New York Times article are more than six years old. If these allegations are true, it is not a reflection of who we are or what we stand for. We are deeply concerned by these allegations and are working aggressively to determine what happened.”

But what started as Cicero doing his employer’s bidding to adhere to a strict anti-corruption policy and report incidences immediately, was then turned into a quick open-and-shut investigation for Walmart led by Juan Francisco Torres-Landa, a Harvard-trained lawyer in Mexico City. He concluded that Cicero was pissed about being passed over and furthermore, that he was skimming part of the bribes he was orchestrating because his wife was an attorney for one of the “gestores,” who often act as middlemen in Mexican payoff schemes.

Sound familiar?

Walmart’s been successful in the past at turning employee rumblings around. Even when they number 1.5 million. That’s how many women filed suit against Walmart claiming they’d received lower pay than their male co-workers and were passed over for promotions. The case which originated in 1999, went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it was tossed out in favor of Walmart.

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I have lived in Mexico for 2 years, and there is no possible way that Wal-Mart or any other business, be they local or foreign, large or small, could setup shop and operate without bribery as part of the process. This is not a case of a big company using its muscle to go around legitimate laws, it is a case of a company negotiating within the terms required by that economy they wish to do business in.

How could any small mom pop shop compete with a corporation that has no respect for the law. You think mom and pop have enough cash to bribe people? Walmart should be broken up and fined for anti trust anti competitive behavior.

If Walmart indeed had to pay bribes to local officials in order to set up business, they they are the victims and should be paid compensation.

It is a scandal that any business, especially such a great business as Walmart, should have to pay bribes in order to do business in a particular location. It astonishes me that this is not the focus of the current ‘scandal.’ It is a sad comment upon the faulty moral compass of the press.

This is mexico, bribes are just how you do business there. www.minishop.com

Did WalMart offer the bribes or were they solicited? This is a country where elected officials and police officers drive around in vehicles stolen in the U.S. and they don’t even bother to take the U.S. license plates off.

As big as this story is, it’s hiding the REALLY BIG story: how former FBI agents employed by private companies are using their connections back at the bureau to run all kinds of dirty ops on people in and out of their company, and on other companies.

Some countries this is how you do business. Example in Greece if you want to process something through customs there are two fees. One fee means your going be waiting a few weeks to get it cleared. The other fee is generally $30 or more and it results in customs being completed right away.